Noelia Diaz

Noelia Diaz is a PhD candidate in the Comparative Literature department at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research investigates how contemporary theater in Argentina and Ireland contributes to a more committed citizenship through its critique/s of the rise in inequality in both countries under Menem in the former, and the Celtic Tiger period in the latter. Argentina and Ireland lend themselves to parallel critiques because similar aggressive neoliberal economic policies were implemented in the 90′s in both countries that weakened their welfare states. The unresolved, dark endings of the plays can be interpreted as new points of departure for alternative discourses, communities, and social orders, and in doing so, create new forms of empowerment for the recently marginalized citizenships of Argentina and Ireland. Her research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how theater’s intervention into the social sphere has the potential to generate a more critical understanding of transnational systems and interactions. Noelia Diaz currently teaches at John Jay College in the Theater and Communications Department.